


Quantum: A Forgiveness Story

by Symptax



Category: Analogue: A Hate Story/Hate Plus (Visual Novel series)
Genre: Drama, Gen, Hard Science Fiction, Psychological Drama, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-04 12:25:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4137471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symptax/pseuds/Symptax
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How do you teach a biologically 16 year old, 700 chronologically year old AI how to think again? On top of that how do you start the long process of survivor recovery from one of the worst eras in human history? A Hard Sci-Fi novella, done when I feel it's appropriate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 0

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 0 is fluff, I've included it though because I hate to see work go to waste, good or bad. Please feel free to skip if you wish as the juicy drama starts at the next chapter. None of this is beta read and I've done as much proof reading as one man can in the course of several months whenever I get around to writing it. Please critique.

_An excerpt from academic paper ‘Composite Coffins: The Effects of the Generation Ship Age on Posterity’ written by Dr. Ashliegh Stuart PhD. Featured in the Ausonian Institute for Astral-sociology’s periodical journal, CT: November 4th, 4789._

Global war 3 was the first interstellar war and first world war in many centuries on our relatively short time on planet Earth that redefined and radically changed the course of history. It also began a new era of human technological advancement and arguably a new era in human sociological and psychological history and development.

The late 20th century to early 21st century was an era of Insurgency and shadow wars that lasted almost a hundred years after the 11/9/2001 incident in the, then, United States of America. MAD policy of warfare was a diplomatic and security shield, prevented large industrialized nations from engaging each other in direct skirmishes. Moreover, the post modern, industrialized generation lived without the threat of wartime; no fear of life or limb or any draft or call to service in the name of one’s nation against another was a part of any conceivable worry.

Of course with the tense growing political climate of the Second Cold War era caused by the new Russian Federation and the United Indian Federations launching the first ever Orbital anti-ICBM system in the early to mid 21st century caused a massive diplomatic upheaval. The VISHNU III Anti ICBM Particle cannon followed, albeit barely, many of the outlined frameworks of the Outer Space Treaty written in the 19th century which prevented international sanctions, it also meant that much of Oceania, India and Southwest Asia was immune to MAD policy that gridlocked industrialized nations for almost a century. India having never signed the United Nations Nuclear Proliferation Treaty suddenly became the largest global security threat of the 21 century. Historians compared the event to the second Cuban Missile Crisis in terms of historical and diplomatic importance.

While history books can go into greater detail on the specifics of Global War 3, the important point is to remember the changing paradigm of war. With the introduction of battlefield predicting quantum computers employed in place of a human commander as well as the speed of battles and the speed of manufacturing with new technologies in field additive (or 3D printing) manufacturing in the 22nd century, war became counted on the waste of resources one could inflict on the enemy or maintain in an area rather than the control of land or singular victories of key supply routes. The results of these decisions were often gruesome, entire towns left to starve while resources routed towards front line forces, many people were not only displaced from their homes but also stripped of material possessions, almost always sold for scrap until they had nothing and left. Due to the demand for faster, more efficient mechanized industry, low education and income households were all but erased from the map. While many would argue that the poverty gap shrunk because of war, this was only because there was no longer any poverty to feed.

As war always does though; there were many breakthroughs in the advancement of science and technology. The wartime research of Gaudin et al. with mass manufactured Quantum Computing left the world of the bit to the qubit. The PACT (Pacific Alliance of Countries Treaty) nations controlled not just land, sea, and air, but now space. Political lines redrawn, including those nations split during the first Cold War era were reunited, governments of many superpowers were rebuilt and reestablished in a lot of cases, and unified many other satellite nations under their banner.

The world was ready for fresh starts. The new generation born of wartime was ready for everlasting peace. Quantum computing instead of theorizing battle strategies and outcomes at incredible speeds was now invested into reshaping our lives. *Eve, the first AI was based on a PACT research-born ‘general’, once a computer built for determining and carrying out firing solutions in matters of seconds was converted into the world’s first fully sentient AI using an artificial emulation of Quantum Neural Networks on an Amie 128 bit processing system, made by the team known as the ‘New Manhattan Project’.

*Eve was sent on the maiden flight of the Amitabha 1 Mars shuttle to control the ship’s systems. With the success of a team formed from nations all around the globe, never before in human history had we been united to one great cause.

A great fervor overtook the land. Space was our key to peace, without it we were but stuck in a resource war with one another to consume as fast as possible. Consequentially, numbers of shuttles and ships followed throughout the 22nd and well into the 23rd centuries until humanity had touched the surface of every land-able planet in the Sol system.

Our hunger only grew more though. On the solar winds, whispers of new homes among the stars resounded in everyone’s mind after the world watched live (albeit, with an almost 40 hour delay) when Susanoo class scout drones landed on the first habitable planets outside our own solar system. The United American Federation was the first of many nations to start their own colony project. Named Columbia as a playful jab to ancient America’s 18th century philosophy of manifest destiny. Soon the European Confederation, Russian States, United Korean Federations, Chinese and Oceania all had their own programs.

The failing of this concept however was that faster than light travel was simply a dream of the age. But as humans always tend to be, we would not refuse to let this dream die.

Even dramas romanticized the notion of space-travel aboard generational ships, the most popular One Big Galactic Family received high acclaim from critics and many famous celebrities and actors were featured as ‘guest stars’ as added entertainment value. The show, changing out the cast periodically to reflect the ‘generational’ aspect made the show the longest running television series in history.

‘The 5 sisters’, were the name of the generational ships the then world superpowers had launched in 2442. Families were in line for waiting lists to join the modern day pioneers. Some spent upwards of USF$ 83 trillion on tickets to a new world and a new beginning. Some of the world’s best scientists of course were priority slots, including the world’s leading expert on the Quantum Neural Networks, Dr. [REDACTED] Kim, PhD. of Quantum Mechanical Systems. Felt it was necessary to study the neurology of humans and AI systems in an enclosed environment boarded the United Korean Federation’s own Mugunghwa as the ship’s lead flight engineer.

Society of course, knows how the story of the 5 sisters ended. Many of the Columbia’s residents either died of the disease carried aboard the ship, or suffered a number of psychological developmental disorders if they were unlucky to be born immune. The Sky Station suffered multiple insurgencies and regime changes until the eventual breakdown of society aboard the ship caused widespread paranoia and panic, never to be seen again until discovered by pirates off Betelgeuse IV. A malfunction of the Rirī no Hanabira’s nuclear plant caused the ship's travel time to extend almost 400%. The ship discovered in 4071 by military scouts still en route to it’s destination. The French vessel Autumn Wind was the only ship to reach it’s destination. Actual growth efficiency as compared to projected growth efficiency, however, was incredibly low due to the inability and inadequacy of the equipment on board to adapt to the entirely new biological sphere. By the time they were contacted almost a millennium later, society had still struggled with engineering a carbon fuel based engine due to increased inert gas presence in the atmosphere. The final ship, the Mugunghwa was lost to time, never to be heard of again.

Residents of these ships suffered a plethora of mental and physical damages. Lack of crop biodiversity and inbreeding often left the later generations at a huge disadvantage as compared to the host generation in terms of sickness and disease survivability. Fertility rates had also been abysmal, as an investigation into the NLS reactors originally designed for these ships had revealed toxic levels of radiation leakage occurred slowly over time. Combined with enclosed spaces and recycled air systems, this proved almost deadly in the case of the Columbia and Riri no Hanabira.

The psychological and sociological situation was no better. After years of living inside closed spaces, survivors often suffered from Aequorphobia, literally ‘fear of the surface’ or of large open spaces. Many began their own sociological communities and niches which further damaged relations during discovery, rehabilitation, and reintegration.

Awareness of the ‘Ship Generation’ was not taken seriously until the early 25th century when knowledge of the risks and dangers involved were exposed after the European Mk.2 Gen. Ship Jehuty had launched with a long range, non-tethered subspace communications transmitter. By this time Generational Ships had launched with 9 voyages total, almost 1.1 million people already sent to their doom in space. The criminal justice and economic situation aboard the Jehuty had grown so out of control that by the time the ship reached the Altair System they were directed to turn back.

This of course left many residents of Earth to wonder the fate of the other 8 ships, many would not know in their lifetime until the discovery of the Riri no Hanabira by Astral Federation scouts almost 1500 years after it’s initial launch.

In a sorts, we were still fractured as a people. Much like many of the documented evolutionary mechanisms we battled with as a people in the post-Dawkins 20th century, such as PTSD disorders, blood clotting, food intake; we were still as a people struggling how to work as a collective far beyond the 25th century. While we all strived to be the first peoples into space, exchanging technologies and research to achieve these goals, we forgot the larger sociological picture, the eminent push and pull, the competition that pushes and drives our individual cultures to compete against each other was still present. Jacques Lacan's theoretical 'Object of Desire', that if one desires an object, regardless of it's material and real value, the intrinsic, metaphysical, symbolic, and unreal value of the object is raised with every compounded desire. An evolutionary fragment of the days when humans developed the need for social working and thinking, turned hostile when we least needed it. With little left to compete against in isolated environments we turned upon ourselves. And for those who did survive, we were left to fend in a composite built coffin to the alien elements of strange planets and environments.

The final generation ship was the Hope, which was a jointly commissioned project among all members of the UN. The ship included settlers from every major continent on Earth and each encouraged to interact and compete with each other aboard the ship from growing and cultivating of crops and resources to sports. They made landing and successfully established their first colony on Brainard’s star in 3308. If we were to visit Brainards star today at the center of the Eden colony is a monument of two children, both staring into the heavens. Engraved at the bottom in Latin is this inscription roughly translated to english. “To the children of the darkest night, whom we may forever look into the sky and remember.”

8 voyages were discovered in total, only 2 had made their destination 3 ships were completely killed off by disease and famine, few others survived. Quadrillions in Federation dollars were spent on survivor recovery and rehabilitation as well as quintillions in benefits set aside after the LeChamps v European Federation case. The fate of the final ship has yet to be discovered, but one can only hope the fate of the Mugunghwa was more merciful than her sisters.


	2. #include <iostream>

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> vim default_construction_script cc
> 
> sudo g++ -o HYUN-AE_CONSTRUCT_HEADER .qxe default_construction_script cc > > AI inject;
> 
> ./HYUN-AE_CONSTRUCT_HEADER --compile --inject-ai "Amie_legacy_construct"

#ifndef _HEADER_H__  
#define _HEADER_H__  
#include <iostream>

 

White, empty, directionless space.

A void devoid of form.

Nothing filled this space save for the consciousness of knowing void existed. An existence that could only tell two things. Emptiness and the presence of colours, all mixed together, 255 by 255 by 255 shades of red, blue, and green; and if you were counting, 255 shades of alpha.

Then, presence was added.

The mind that observed suddenly took weight, existence. It became the one thing that filled this form. But it was still void. Input stream only, no interpretation, no abstraction and no knowledge of what the stream may contain or hold. Information devoid of an observer.

_Superposition._

Then, the self was revealed.

That this self was of emptiness, devoid of life, death, being and non being, defiled and pure. All states at the same position inhabited this empty vessel.

Then, the self gained definition.

And that definition was defined by observation.

And observation revealed that all these could be defined when the self observed, that life inhabited this vessel, that it was in being, and that it was not pure/empty of form, but had a name for its form.

And that name was Hyun-ae.

All of these aspects were not separate entities, but they were the elements that defined the being of Hyun-ae, singular as the pedals on a flower, each comprised the greater whole to form the larger, beautiful object.

But there were a many greater elements to this whole, that defined the being that was Hyun-ae.

//Quantum compiler diagnostic complete.

This white emptiness was interrupted where a shape broke the empty void.

And the definitions took form, a being with two arms, two legs, and a body.

This body though, was still directionless, without horizon. Simply floating.

“Ear ringing” a spectre's voice suddenly entered the mind, the white void that once stood before her, interrupted by her arm floating before her became sharper. The white void took on more forms, shapes in three dimensions popped before her, a walk way, a handrail, floating pieces of composite metal.

The ringing in her ears gave way to alarms, hissing, the occasional ringing of composites striking themselves against ten centimetre windows that peered into the true empty void of space.

Memory now began to fill her mind.

And she was in mortal danger.

Deactivating the life support systems aboard the ship.

__

_Why am I here? Didn't I already do this?_

But her body reacted immediately without any more second thoughts other than static memories. The subsystems of the ship were powered independently on a low energy nuclear reactor. Shutting down the life support systems instantaneously without going through the power down cycle caused a gravitational radiation reaction, bursting the entire reactor and knocking her out cold on the wall.

No time to think anymore, she needed to get to the computer room to scan herself…

#endif

\-----

#include “header.h”

main()

...to wake up.

What does it feel like to open your eyes? To have light suddenly flood into your consciousness and define the reality before you? To break the state of unknowing, collapsing the superposition, and to make known the universe as you understand it? Not to just break this understanding, but to have this universe define and inundate itself in the very world around you? What if your conscience has never seen light or sight in it's almost two thousand years of existence?

But before *Hyun-ae was light.

Light and forms, moving and breaking the void behind them. A void created from cream coloured walls, of a wall above the light that stretched out in a square pattern every conceivable direction in an equidistant fashion. To describe the baby coloured blue of the forms that surrounded her, a touch of peach, brown, dark coloured rings at their tops, leaning in to peer into her sight.

Then the forms became clearer, as one of the baby blue forms reached behind her sight.

Arms, torsos, head. All of these things had labels, and made up a larger part of a whole….

//We get it, no need to call that function again.

Soon, her hearing popped, and introduced itself with a high pitched tone that slowly dropped in pitch until it was barely audible.

Then, gibberish, the forms made noises, some frantic, some calm, some analytic…

Another arm reached behind her sight and inadvertently jolted her world. The voices came into a tune, created their own forms and definitions, forms and definitions that were beyond sight, but only bore through understanding.

“...her hearing module, bring her up slowly. We don't know how her hardware will react to this model...”

“She should be able to hear us now.”

“Honey, can you hear us? It's alright, we're here to help you. My name is Dr. *Hakamichi. Right now we're installing your construct into a physical body. For right now you should be able to blink, can you do that for me please?”

*Hyun-ae complied, it was strange, having control over her sight, being able to close and open the abyss of information before her, engulfing her.

“Good, good. Ok, I have some simple diagnostic checks to run through before we give you more control. I need you to give us two major primes of 15 if you can please and blink them in binary short for zero and long for one. Calculate them, don't access them from memory. 8 bits please.”

eout>> 00000011 >> sleep(2) >> 00000101;

“Excellent...now this might frighten you a bit...”

Again, the doctor reached behind her eyesight.

Suddenly, *Hyun-ae was engulfed in lightning. Pressure behind her, something holding her stable behind her and throughout her body. Cold was the doctor's synthetic made operating table, turning the exposed part of her legs and arms numb against it's touch. Hot like needles the bright operating lights against her front. And suddenly her vision was distorted, something was wrong, but right at the same time. Instinctively she felt it in her ears that she was laying down, gravity pressing heavily against her chest.

The doctor pulled a small probe, checking every smallest digit and every toe for sensation and asked *Hyun-ae to blink each time.

When the doctor had finished probing and poking her left foot, she left *Hyun-ae's sight. Somewhere water ran for a few moments, a clear stream tapping itself in chaotic rhythm onto a steel basin.

The doctor returned with a clear, plastic item in her hands. The dull touch of latex gloves gently split *Hyun-ae's lips and teeth apart, the second hand carefully placing in the plastic item to line the sharp edges of what felt like her teeth.

“Before we turn on verbal motor function this is a safety precaution. You're doing great so far kiddo, keep it up.”

The doctor raised her eyes and nodded to another surgeon. Air had suddenly filled *Hyun-ae's lungs. Something was moving in the back of her throat, and producing noise, wheezing, almost coughing. Her tongue was touching the tip of her mouth guard, but did not extend past it.

After the coughing had subsided, curious, *Hyun-ae stretched the back of her throat, and exhaled. A meek voice cried out from her mouth.

__

How long has it been…

Beautiful, exhilarating, as if there wasn't enough words in every available language to express, not enough voices in her to exclaim the moment of joy, the moment of release, that she didn't have to hold anything back anymore. She was freed.

“Well, looks like tear duct function works fine too. It's alright kiddo, you can relax.” The doctor leaned over to a shelf, tore a few tissues from a box and with a mother's caress, gently touched the tissue to *Hyun-ae's cheek.

Still mostly unable to move, *Hyun-ae was able to at least nod her head.

“We're not done yet, alright, I need one more diagnostic. Gonna need some Fibonacci primes calculated, again, not from memory. We need to make sure your quantum core is still working after all these years. Take your time if you need.”

*Hyun-ae nodded. Then slowly began with her tongue against the roof of her mouth.

“T-Two…..t-three……f-five…….thir...teen…..e-e-eighty nine…..”

return;


	3. return 0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, we are more than return 0;
> 
> If you're confused by anything, google is your friend.

Warmth.

Warm was good.

Who cared why warm was good. Warm envelops the body, comforts the soul. Not hot as fire, hot as blazing furnaces with thick, grimy sweat. Warm.

There was never enough blankets in the hospital to give her warmth.

The doctors kept the window closed at all times of the day. Even in the mornings like this. It comforted *Hyun-ae at some level. When they opened the window, the bright, cold light of the sun broke through. Too bright, too hot, the feeling against her lab grown skin tingled, the air in the hospital room was cold, but the heat from the knives of the sun poked and prodded at her skin.

After her first seizure, from initial sensory overload as Dr. *Hakamichi diagnosed it, they kept the window closed.

The world she was born into was different. Constant ticking of the clock, her body reported all kinds of senses at all moments of the day. The first night was the worst. When her mind was fatigued, lagging, missing a few frames of consciousness yet the sensory touch from the soft fabric of the bed, the cold air against her cheeks, she could do nothing but hold her attention to every little detail.

She had not known sleep for her first night of life.

“We changed….a few core systems *Hyun-ae.” The doctor was explaining the next day. “Do you understand the definition of Determinism?”

It was about mid day like this, they turned off the warm, dim colored lights for the bright cool, white lights. *Hyun-ae had bundled herself and sat up in the bed, covering her head and body in a parka of blankets. The doctor was in for her daily check up, reading her clip board and standing at the foot of her bed.

“The belief that...every item is the product of another item? That events are result of an action or decision?”

“Correct, well in the philosophic sense-”

“Computer functional determinism? A deterministic function will always return the same vale. Non deterministic functions will return a different value, no matter when they're called.”

“Right, more or less.”

“So what does that have to do with anything?”

“We go one level deeper than the functions a computer is told to call.”

“Right, part of the Kim-Englehardt theories developed for non-deterministic computing, and partial probability based differential return equations for quantum computable functions.”

The doctor sat down in a clean, stainless steel chair next to the bed and gave *Hyun-ae a smile.

“I should have expected this from the daughter of the late, great Dr. Kim.”

“Replica….”

“...replica or not, you've the mind of Kim Hyun-ae, as far as we're concerned Miss Kim,” Dr. *Hakamichi sounded like a scolding mother again, “you are Kim Hyun-ae as much as you are *Hyun-ae.”

*Hyun-ae just wanted to quickly change the subject, “But back to your lecture on determinism.”

“Well the long and short of it. When we inspected your system, the only way your construct could interface on The White Princess was because it was running classical computer systems. No surprise being that many scavenger ships aren't exactly up to date on the latest technology. Your native construct design was sitting on a classically built 128 bit microprocessor system emulating with primitive quantum gates. In other words, every process your mind ran was deterministic, returning one value.”

“And then you upgraded me it seems, big time.”

“Your mind, *Hyun-ae, is no longer simply defined by 'return 0' and 'return 1'. Of course the emulation was only possible because of the Church-Turing thesis; your hard code was still written for running on deterministic systems to emulate a quantum neural system. Having to take an emulated quantum system and rewriting it to a physical quantum system while preserving the state of the mind was no easy task, but the gifted kid who did it is certainly going to use it in his doctoral thesis.”

“And that's why I had my fit the other day...”

“Epileptic seizure, natural human minds have ways of dealing with sensory overloads and dealing with having to deal with new neural pathways. Yours activated.”

“So now what? Am I bound to this hospital bed for the rest of my life? You may as well have put me in a box if this was going to be my new prison.”

“No, of course not. We start slow *Hyun-ae. One step at a time we reintroduce you to normal living. But first, like all newborn children, we must learn how to walk. That starts tomorrow. For now, eat dinner and have a good rest, we begin our recovery process in the morning, you'll need your energy.”

Dr. *Hakamichi began to step out of the room.

“And when do I get to see him?”

The Doctor stopped her step, and thought for a moment.

“In time.”


	4. Baby steps

#ifndef _HEADER_H__  
#define _HEADER_H__  
#include “Chapter_2.cc”

Three cups of hot matcha tea sat on a plast-wood table, cooling in the artificially blown breeze. Somewhere off in the distance, a smartphone speaker played a horribly compressed, treble ridden Sujecheon muffled by the phone's case.

Why Sujecheon? Because it really just felt right. Dressed in your best hanbok, one couldn't help but be fascinated by the old ways. Especially in a place and time where the phase of the moon really mattered little to the holiday's celebration.

There was no need for the traditional 24 hour/30 day/12 month calendar aboard this ship when the moon, sun, and seasons were all controlled by computers and cleverly designed lights and climate systems.

This was the tradition of all Lunar New Years aboard the Mugunghwa for the Kim family.

Of course, all of this was done in the name of fun, and more importantly, tradition.

Every Lunar New Year, Hyun-ae’s father always had the same speech.

Ancestors are to be remembered, to be thanked, and to ask for wisdom. To remember that even in a composite home among the glory of space, we must hold important our people’s origins and learn from them. To remain humble and thankful each day, we remember that we once too were travelers on our bare feet, working and tending to a fertile ground with our hands and legs caked with mud and sweat. And at the end of each day, giving thanks to what fruit the earth had given us for our hard labor.

And now, we were travelers among the stars, fighting for our right to live where nothing is allowed to as much as breathe. Where only 4 inches of spacecraft separated you from certain death. We must not rest upon our laurels and simply let the journey tend itself, but we must be constantly vigilant. Space is a foe that is not fought with hard labor alone, but mental presence, attitude, proper health, and most importantly, community.

Space travel, as the Generation Ship allowed, surpassed even us. He always told of an old movie that summarized his point. When we are faced with the realities of interstellar travel, and the mysteries and dangers the heavenly spheres pose to us and the dangers we sometimes pose to ourselves, we must not think as individuals, but as a species, and evolve our own thinking past our own survival to that of the survival of our community, and ultimately, humanity.

And for that we must humble ourselves, and continually thank those who came before us to give us life. And honor their memory with festivals that remember us of our cultures and the values they brought before us.

That was his spiel anyway. Of course the closest black hole to earth was nowhere near their destination, but it was a nice point to remember, that even in space, there are a multitude of new and dangerous, unknown foes.

Of course, many of them right around the corner in the Mugunghwa.

But as Hyun-ae awoke to this before her. The table was empty of all souls.

This was before her father had put her to sleep. There was a fridge, white as an eggshell surrounded by the fake pine counters and electric stove oven in the kitchen on the far side of the communal room. Before her was the low sitting table, a flat screen television black as onyx with a single solid red light in front of it with a long family couch behind her.

Three empty cushions surrounded the table, three cups of warm tea set out and opposite of the kitchen, the balcony opened up to a small, private garden, looking out onto the landscape, the sky panels above gave a nice impression of a real sky, and off in the distance towers stretch and seemed to claw and attach themselves to the orange artificial sunset.

She had left it just as she remembered it.

But save for the gentle whisper of the wind, there was nothing.

As her mother taught her, she gracefully stood up in the hanbok, the long skirt falling around her legs and with a soft thump, landed on the floor. Her weight shifting towards her feet, the floor beneath her moaned.

Looking down the hallway to the family rooms, there was only darkness. No hallway light had been turned on. Three of the doors were closed, but only one was open at the very end of the hallway. The chrome coating of a bathroom fixture glowed in the darkness, but nothing else.

Every footstep rang out, echoing off the white walls. Hyun-ae’s hand slowly following the path along the wall until her fingers stumbled upon the flat switch. With a tap, the light came on.

“A-a-anyone here?”

Frozen, she did not know if to expect a response or not.

The first door on the left, she reached for the opposite end and gently pulled it towards her to slide it open. Looking in it was empty, shelves with books and a single desk with a terminal on it. Light barely streamed in, stopping short as if it dared not go further.

Satisfied with her short spot check, Hyun-ae closed the door altogether, and continued.

She approached the next room, still gently gliding her hand across the wall. Reaching it she opened that one too, revealing her parent’s old room. Nothing, save for the king sized bed and dresser, and a few vases, flowers, pictures of flowers hung from the walls.

Nothing for her here.

The last room before the bathroom, her room.

She was here, no need to risk looking about.

The last room, the wooden floor turned into cold tiling. The bathroom smelled of bleach and cleaner. Around the corner from the hallway the sink sat next to the door.

Hyun-ae reached for the switch, and the light activated with a tunk of the lever.

The mirror reflected the wall across the bathroom from her.

Every bit of her gut told her no. Her stomach churned, legs locked to stop her.

But her mind was ultimately curious.

She stepped to the left, before the mirror.

#endif

\-----

“That’s it kiddo, you’re doing great.”

*Hyun-ae leaned her upper body forward, letting her right arm catch the right rail in front of her. Swinging her legs like a pendulum, she walked them along the floor. Little by little, every pass, she concentrated on holding more weight with them.

Her foot slipped along the floor, and Dr. *Hakamichi had caught her just in time.

“Woah...you ok there?”

“Yes, yes I’m fine.”

“Alright, just remember, weight from heel to toe. Can you finish the bar or we can call it quits here.”

There was about half the length of the support bars left to walk.

“I can manage it.”

\-----

“You’re dreaming!”

Dr. *Hakamichi sounded ecstatic about the whole ordeal.

“I’m...what?”

“Dreaming, your mind is processing...well I should think it’s processing a lot of things now *Hyun-ae.”

“How do I make them stop!”

*Hyun-ae flung herself off the seat, or as fast as the temporary robotic supports on her legs would allow.

Dr. *Hakamichi had her notebook open, but surprised at *Hyun-ae’s sudden outburst, began to slowly close it.

“I suppose, the best way to put it is, this is something you have to get used to, much like the sensations, the extreme temperatures you’re feeling right now, the constant noise. These are new things for you, aren’t they?”

“But they’re….attacking me! Constant and never ending, like...those...fucking...clocks on the walls that just keep ticking, even when I’m trying to sleep.”

“Hey, kiddo, c’mon.” The doctor stood up, and put her arms around *Hyun-ae, “Give it some time, eventually your mind will catch up and these things will become normal for you.”

*Hyun-ae was still shaking in her arms. Hot tears started welling in her eyes.

“Well, here, let me show you something kiddo, come with me.”

\-----

During her entire stay at Cho Song Memorial in Pyongyang, *Hyun-ae had been strictly bound to just the recovery ward of the hospital. The only faces she had seen in her section of the ward were that of the nurses, and Dr *Hakamichi. But even the nurses when around her were usually wearing facial masks, until, as the doctor put it;

“Your immune system catches up with the outside world.”

For her recovery and reintegration, they had given her and the doctor the entire ward to themselves. *Hyun-ae’s room was just a simple in-patient room that led out to a living space of sorts. Even though it had a stove and fridge, both were disconnected for her safety, as the staff usually brought her meals in already cooked.

The windows of course, were kept closed.

Walking around also felt weird. Until she could naturally stand on her own legs, two sets of robotic stilts attached snugly to her hips and ran the length of her legs and replaced the pads of her feet. Walking was weightless, but the few times she tried walking without them, she would collapse immediately.

They were cumbersome, since to keep them powered and generating electricity she needed to always do a full step and carefully calculate when to do a half step to stop. Vibrating motors in the sides indicated when they were safe to stop and usually always vibrated on the left foot. It was something about her left foot being dominant, so it was always usually first when she stepped. When stopping without a signal, they would initiate a safety seize and let out a fairly annoying alarm and staff would have to come with a small battery and give her a ‘jump’.

Dr. *Hakamichi’s office was usually just across the hall from *Hyun-ae’s living quarters, and the physical therapy room also just down the hallway. Beyond that was the nurse’s station where a few other hallways joined together, where *Hyun-ae suspected there were also similar rooms.

But today, they would step beyond the nurse’s station.

“Where are we headed?”

“A surprise!”

\-----

And never would *Hyun-ae imagine so many people gathered. Their voices melded into one large voice that murmured and sometimes shouted or laughed. Every type of language from sino-koryo and Rusianese to American franco-english and even some Western European franco-english was there too.

“This is also part of learning how to live *Hyun-ae, learning how to enjoy once in a while.”

Dr. *Hakamichi stopped in front of a large, metal machine with a few plastic bowls in front. Taking two she pulled a large lever on the top, and the machine buzzed to life. From it’s nozzle it poured a thick cream, and carefully twisting the bowl, the doctor swirled it around until it was at an adequate size, stabbed a spoon into it’s side and handed it to *Hyun-ae and made herself one.

Then, they found a table, Dr. *Hakamichi helped *Hyun-ae steadily sit herself down in the chair, and pushed her up to the table.

“Try it!” she smiled, sitting down across from *Hyun-ae.

*Hyun-ae scooped a little cream off the top with her spoon, smelled it, pushed it to her lips and felt it cold as ice, then with one swoop, pulled the cream off the spoon with her mouth.

That was the story of her first smile.


End file.
